PhpSpreadsheet - Download file instead of saving it - php

Question

I need to generate an excel file (xls) and trigger the download after it is generated.
I found this example in the documentation.
<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';
use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Spreadsheet;
use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Xlsx;
$spreadsheet = new Spreadsheet();
$sheet = $spreadsheet->getActiveSheet();
$sheet->setCellValue('A1', 'Hello World !');
$writer = new Xlsx($spreadsheet);
$writer->save('hello world.xlsx');
It shows how to create a excel file and save it on the server.
How can I serve the result to the client instead and "force" him to download it?
I need to get the data of the $writer somehow.
I am currently solving it without PhpSpreadsheet:
// Excel Export
$filename = 'export_'.date('d-m-y').'.xls';
$filename = $validator->removeWhitespace($filename);
header('Content-type: application/ms-excel');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename='.$filename);
exit($response["output"]); // <-- contains excel file content
But it is not working with my delimiter (semicolon). The semicolon is not getting interpreted and everything is getting written into one column.
If I export it as .csv, then it works. But I need it as .xls or .xlsx

Answer 1

use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Spreadsheet;
use PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Xlsx;
class DownloadExcel
{
public static function createExcel(array $data, array $headers = [],
$fileName = 'data.xlsx')
{
$spreadsheet = new Spreadsheet();
$sheet = $spreadsheet->getActiveSheet();
for ($i = 0, $l = sizeof($headers); $i < $l; $i++) {
$sheet->setCellValueByColumnAndRow($i + 1, 1, $headers[$i]);
}
for ($i = 0, $l = sizeof($data); $i < $l; $i++) { // row $i
$j = 0;
foreach ($data[$i] as $k => $v) { // column $j
$sheet->setCellValueByColumnAndRow($j + 1, ($i + 1 + 1), $v);
$j++;
}
}
$writer = new Xlsx($spreadsheet);
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="'. urlencode($fileName).'"');
$writer->save('php://output');
}
}
This is what I use to create a spreadsheet with PhpSpreadsheet and output directly to php://output for download.

Answer 2

I had the same problem and found a solution here : https://github.com/PHPOffice/PhpSpreadsheet/issues/217
I ended my method with $writer->save('php://output'); then exit()

Answer 3

My answer :
PHP:
$writer = new Xlsx($spreadsheet);
ob_start();
$writer->save('php://output');
$ret['data'] = base64_encode(ob_get_contents());
ob_end_clean();
JS:
var linkSource = 'data:application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet;base64,'+ response.data ;
var downloadLink = document.createElement("a");
var fileName = 'clients.' + format;
downloadLink.href = linkSource;
downloadLink.download = fileName;
downloadLink.click();

Answer 4

I solved it with a workaround. I temporarily save the file on the server, then I load the content into a variable and serve it as a download file. Then I delete the file from the server.
Workaround:
$date = date('d-m-y-'.substr((string)microtime(), 1, 8));
$date = str_replace(".", "", $date);
$filename = "export_".$date.".xlsx";
try {
$writer = new Xlsx($response["spreadsheet"]);
$writer->save($filename);
$content = file_get_contents($filename);
} catch(Exception $e) {
exit($e->getMessage());
}
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=".$filename);
unlink($filename);
exit($content);

Answer 5

call ob_end_clean(); just before the $writer->save('php://output').
ob_end_clean();
$writer->save('php://output');

Answer 6

This worked for me:
$excel = new \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Spreadsheet();
$sheet = $excel->getActiveSheet();
$sheet->setTitle('This is a test', true);
ob_end_clean();
header('Content-Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet');
header('Content-Disposition: attachment;filename="filename_' . time() . '.xlsx"');
header('Cache-Control: max-age=0');
$xlsxWriter = \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\IOFactory::createWriter($excel, 'Xlsx');
$xlsxWriter = new \PhpOffice\PhpSpreadsheet\Writer\Xlsx($excel);
exit($xlsxWriter->save('php://output'));

Answer 7

If you have problems where the files download corrupted, it is always good to check if there is any extra whitespace at the top of your file output. If your PHP files have blank white lines, whilst HTML won't have a problem, your phpspreadsheet file will. Spent a good chunk of time trying to fix these issues but the problem was with the whitespace!